Euthanized

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The owner of a pit bull that mauled an 11-year-old Aurora boy this week will not be charged by police. Orville Wayne Cockriel was questioned by Aurora police Thursday night after being arrested by Kane County sheriff's deputies. Citing lack of criminal intent, police declined to charge Cockriel, 54, of the 400 block of Dayward Court. The investigation has been turned over to Aurora animal control authorities, who will decide whether to bring charges under local ordinances, police said.

Nordic tracker? Say what? Norwegians are apparently fascinated with the comings and goings of CTA buses. The CTA Bus Tracker Web site has received 15,395 visits since last year from people in Norway or whose computers or personal wireless devices were registered there, according to the agency's tech gurus -- more than any other country outside the U.S. Meanwhile, 11 more bus routes will be added to ctabustracker.com starting Jan. 26, transit officials said Monday, bring the total to 86 of the CTA's 153 bus routes.

As three horses lay dead on a straw-matted barn floor Monday, dozens of survivors hovered in arcs around them, nursing wounds from the horrific crash Saturday that caused a tractor-trailer loaded with 59 Belgian draft horses to overturn in north suburban Wadsworth. Some had bruised legs, others swollen eyes. A black yearling wore a thick bandage covering an artery that had been cut. A bruise knotted the neck of a dusty brown horse that chewed green hay in the paddock of a private farm where the horses were brought Saturday night to begin recovering.

A former Illinois State Police trooper pleaded guilty Wednesday to two counts of official misconduct in connection with ordering young couples to strip naked in Gurnee, ending a bizarre set of cases that began in the summer of 2005. Jeremy Dozier, 33, of Beach Park, was sentenced to 30 months probation and 200 hours of public service and was ordered to pay fines and seek treatment. Man charged in MySpace case A Woodridge man is in federal custody in Chicago on a charge that he persuaded a 14-year-old girl he met on myspace.

Evanston is warning residents of the city's northwest corner to keep an eye on their cats as animal control officers try to capture a 100-strong colony of feral cats found in and around the home of a woman who died recently. The woman, identified by neighbors as Ewa Rokossowski, lived alone at the house in the 1900 block of Grant Street. Her body was discovered Sunday. Police say Rokossowski, 78, died of natural causes. During the investigation, officers encountered nearly 100 wild cats in and around the home, said Cmdr.

Dear Amy: I euthanized my beloved cat less than a week ago. Aside from the grief of losing my pet of 15 years, I feel a tremendous guilt at having made the decision to have her put to sleep. She was 17 or 18 years old (I got her from a shelter) and was recently diagnosed with an illness that was affecting her ability to breathe. Because of additional age-related, underlying health conditions, we were not able to use the medicine that was most likely to help her. After several days of agonizing over whether she was suffering, I made an appointment to have her euthanized.

Peaches, at 55 years old the oldest African zoo elephant in the United States, died Monday night in her indoor habitat at Lincoln Park Zoo. Keepers arriving for work Monday morning found her collapsed and too weak to get to her feet. "Though she was alive, her eyes were unfocused and her breathing was labored," a zoo press release said of Peaches' condition Monday morning when they found her in her heated indoor living space in the African Journey building. "For hours, veterinarians and keepers tried to get the elephant back on her feet, but to no avail.

Q. We have to put our dog to sleep but don't know how to explain it to our young children. Can you give us advice? It's Hard to Say Goodbye A. Faith Maloney is Sanctuary Director of the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Kanab, Utah, which is the nation's largest no-kill refuge for abused and abandoned animals. "Making the decision to euthanize a pet is hard on a family," Maloney explains, "but it is especially hard on young children who believe that the pet will always be there."

My heartfelt condolences to the employees and volunteers of Lincoln Park Zoo on the death of Wankie the elephant ("Death stuns zoo, riles protesters; Wankie euthanized after tough trip from Lincoln Park to Utah," Page 1, May 2). No one can be more devastated than these dedicated individuals who have devoted their lives to improving the health and well-being of the animals in their care, in zoos around the world, and in the wild. I fear that the recent loss of the zoo's elephants will overshadow its longtime excellent program for caring for these magnificent creatures.

At least 35 white-sided dolphins have died and more were in trouble Friday after becoming stranded on the shores of Cape Cod. Rescuers who spent Thursday trying to save dozens of dolphins headed back to Wellfleet, Mass., to try to save two more that beached themselves in mudflats Friday morning. There were still many dolphins swimming in Wellfleet harbor and rescuers were watching to make sure they got out safely, said Connie Merigo of the New England Aquarium. At least four more were in the nearby Herring River.